this post was submitted on 27 Feb 2025
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honestly, this is brilliant. Not only is it going to make it easier to understand people with really thick accents -- I've worked with lots of Indian people before (hotel industry) and I still get tripped up from time to time, especially over a crappy phone line -- but it'll also probably cut down on a lot of the racist shit they may take from customers. I can imagine the average call center employee with a thick accent takes a fair bit more abuse than call center employees who speak without an accent.
on the other hand, this might also make it harder to identify a scam call immediately if this becomes commonplace. Not that perfect English speakers aren't also capable of scamming you, but, usually the scam callers aren't perfect English speakers.
I mean you're not wrong about any of this, but I think the not so subtle racism in this AI tool is reprehensible.
When I visited India, there were people who spoke English to me with such a strong accent that I didn't even realize that they were speaking English. Bias against people speaking with an Indian accent is real, but so is the need to facilitate communication.
I totally agree with you. I can't read the article because it requires an account. What I'm concerned about is the highly likely anglo-centric nature of this tool; as in it likely only alters the Indian accent for the convenience of the english speaking customer and likely does nothing to facilitate the work for the employee whose first language is likely not english.
Also, white North Americans are already culturally sheltered enough as it is, last thing I think we need is automation that neutralizes manifestations of culture for the sake of convenient communication.
Yeah, it would be great to adjust accents on demand. When I speak a foreign (to me) language, I would like to be understood, and adjusting my accent for the listener can really help smooh over my tongue fumbling over unfamiliar sounds.